Elastic sealing and mounting strips for sealing and mounting windows in vehicle bodies have already been disclosed in a very large number of very diverse embodiments. The following publications may be mentioned as the prior art which forms the basis of delimitation of the present invention, the most essential of the characteristics, and the disadvantages from which they suffer, being pointed out.
German Auslegeschrift No. 1,025,738 discloses a sealing and mounting strip with a hollow chamber surrounding the groove which receives the edge of the window. This hollow chamber permits better adaptation of the groove to the shape of the rim of the window, but in no way improves the sealing action of the strip in relation to the bodywork.
German Auslegeschrift No. 1,254,034 shows a sealing and mounting strip with undercut edges, for receiving a decorative strip. The decorative strip is sealed against the bodywork by sealing lips.
German Auslegeschrift No. 1,914,350 discloses a sealing and mounting strip with a hollow chamber located below the base of the groove which receives the rim of the window. This hollow chamber, however, does not improve the sealing action of the strip towards the bodywork and an additional adhesive must be employed.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,041,407 discloses a sealing and mounting strip with embedded harder inserts for stiffening certain parts of the sealing strip. Here again, the strip is sealed against the bodywork only by simple sealing lips.
Continuous experience in the mass production of motor vehicles shows, in spite of a great variety of embodiments of sealing and mounting strips employed over the years, that given the wide tolerances encountered in bodywork construction, a large number of leaks at the assembled window arrangements must always be expected. The sealing operations required to overcome these leaks, entailing injection of additional sealing compositions under the sealing lips, leads either to considerable increases in production costs as a result of the subsequently required cleaning operations, or detracts from the status of the manufacturing company if this sealing operation is only carried out by the Customer Service Department if a leak should occur.
It is, therefore, the object of this invention to improve a sealing and mounting strip in such a way that absolute leakproofness of the fitted window arrangement is achieved without the use of additional sealing compositions.